Support Matters in Women’s Sports (Heidi Ettlinger, snow sports guru, USA)
Heidi Ettlinger – Snowsports Industry Guru
In February 2021 I attended the first ever Women’s Kiteboarding Virtual Meet Up and noticed profound similarities to the female community I serve in snowsports. Beginning in 1996 my career path shifted from Human Services and Counseling to becoming a full-time snowsports educator serving the public and professionals.
Along the way I would find a special niche: helping women achieve their goals guided by my own struggles and by listening to their stories. Eventually, this would culminate in building programs for women in snowsports that offered the opportunity to:
- Train with highly experienced world class colleagues
- Enhance their platform for leadership in the industry
- Energize their skiing/riding, teaching, learning and coaching
- And ultimately, change the industry landscape by shaping the future
With a long career in outdoor recreation focused on skiing, I’ve recently been on a journey to explore how I can merge winter and summer by transitioning my coaching and training skills to kiteboarding, snowkiting, and wingsurfing. I grew up sailing on Lake Champlain in Vermont, and with an introduction to kiteboarding from the outstanding team of coaches at OuterBanksKiting.com I’ve found a renewed passion for harnessing the wind and taking my sense of adventure in new directions.
Snow Winging with Heidi – Enjoy The Ride!
How to Help Women in Kiteboarding
I was struck by the Women’s Kiteboarding organization’s mission that directly connected with a call to action in my own work: helping more women cross the barriers and challenges to participating in snowsports.
“This year we want to get together with you all, and fulfill our organization’s mission to connect, educate and inspire women in kiteboarding!” The Women’s Kiteboarding Collective – Mission Statement
The power of bringing like-minded women together to build networking opportunities offers enormous potential not only to them individually, but through collective support that culminates in opening the door to future participants.
Here’s what it comes down to.
In outdoor recreation pursuits that include a gear factor, instruction to obtain skills, and time for guided practice, women either encounter experiences that support them and they continue – or they don’t return.
These are perceived barriers that might prevent women from starting the sport, or might lead to women quitting. I believe we would serve women better by helping lower these perceived and real barriers to entry.
Lessons from Female Snowsports Professionals
Recently, as a member of the Women’s Initiative Task Force for the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) and the Association of American Snowboard Instructors (AASI) we conducted a nationwide survey of over 9,200 female members. The survey had an overwhelming 45% response rate including over 5,000 open comments!
The results produced the first comprehensive report examining women’s experiences as snowsports educators.
Most notably, these findings are consistent with what I have personally witnessed in other areas of outdoor recreational pursuits for women, like in kiteboarding.
Women: There’s a Place at The Table for You – We Hear You!
1. The Big Picture: Culture and Belonging: An overview of systemic issues affecting underrepresentation of women in PSIA-AASI.
2. The Pipeline: Understanding the pathway to high levels of certification within PSIA-AASI and beyond.
3. Professional Development (Parts 1 & 2), Certification, Traits of Trainers: The challenges of professional growth.
4. Mentorship: The value of mentorship in supporting personal and professional growth.
5. Gear Factors: Gear limitations and the roadblocks to skill development.
6. Implicit Bias: Awareness of the issues that hinder success at high levels.
Read The Report of Female Snowsports Professionals
I look forward to the opportunity to support The Women’s Kiteboarding Collective by sharing and building upon what has been learned in other areas of the outdoor industry to better serve women! We are stronger working together, and having the cross discipline connection and sharing of knowledge will help us all as we welcome new women into outdoor sports, and support the amazing inspirational women in our communities.
About Heidi:
Heidi has dedicated much of her career to building and leading women’s adventure programs (in winter and summer) for the public and professionals. Many of these have served as a catalyst for helping more women successfully pursue outdoor recreation and build professional endeavors in their chosen field. Her proudest accomplishment was founding an internationally attended women’s program in snowsports, to help more women contribute to the diversity in leadership roles within the outdoor recreation industry.
For more information about Heidi visit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidi-ettlinger-7178244/
